Is it possible for a person to live under water
for three days in a confined space of either an animate or inanimate host? The Bible says Jonah lived in the belly of a large
fish for three days and three nights. "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights." (Jonah 1:17, New International Version)

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Instead of a whale, the orginal Hebrew text describes what swallowed Jonah as a "great" (gadowl,
גָּד֔וֹל) "fish" (dag,דָּ֣ג).
The Biblical Greek equivalent is ke′tei (κήτους), which means ‘great
fish' or ‘sea monster.' The word "fish" in Latin is rendered pi′scem, from which we get the
Spanish word pescado.

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In his discussion of the "sign of the prophet Jonah" the Lord Jesus
Christ said:

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"Remember how Jonah was in the stomach of a giant fish for three days and three nights?
Well, the Son of man will be in the bosom of the earth for three days and three nights." (Matthew 12:40, Modern Matthew:
Good News for Today--College Edition)

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Does any of this have significance for us today?

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A Modern-Day Miracle: NBC's Today show with Matt Lauer featured a human interest story that
garnered international attention. It was the case of a man who survived three days in a 4-foot air pocket of a tugboat. The
boat capsized in freezing seawater off the coast of Nigeria, and thereafter settled 98 feet (30 meters) on the sea floor.

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It all happened in May 2013, but didn't capture the attention of the world until the video was released
in December of that year, after which it was given extensive media coverage.

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The man was later identified
as the cook, 29-year-old Harrison Okene, who survived on just one bottle of Coca Cola. Okene said he was praying the whole
time. "I started calling on the name of God," one news outlet reported him as saying. "I started reminiscing
on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalm 54 to 92."

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In an intriguing parallel,
Jonah also prayed and was delivered.

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"Then Jonah prayed unto Jehovah his God out of the fish's belly.
And he said, I called by reason of mine affliction unto Jehovah, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol [the Hebrew
word for "grave"] cried I, and thou heardest my voice." (Jonah 2:1, American Standard Version)

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The team that saved the Black African Okene was three European Whites, beautifully illustrating that the magnificent
human spirit has no color.

According to the Associated Press Okene "was rescued by a diver who first used hot water to warm him
up, then attached him to an oxygen mask. Once free of the sunken boat, he was put into a decompression chamber and then safely
returned to the surface."

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What loving, caring maneuvers!

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Scriptural Symbolism?:
Some may see symbolism in the nearness of Okene's age, 29 (or his ordinal age of 30; that is, experiencing life in his 30th
year), to that of Jesus, who "was about 30 years old when he began his ministry." (Luke 3:23, International
Standard Version)

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And the fact that there were 12 men on the boat, just as there were 12 sons of Israel,
12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus, give some reason for pause.

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But, no matter how titillating,
such conclusions are beyond the scope of this article.

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What can be said for sure is that the consensus of
the NBC Today show crew (and no doubt millions of others) is that Okene's survival was an answer to a prayer.

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To be sure, it was nothing short of miraculous.

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But what can we learn from Okene's episodic experience?

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Let's Extrapolate: Webster's dictionary documents that to extrapolate means "to
form an opinion or to make an estimate about something from known facts."

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We can form an opinion or
estimate that Jonah survived for three days in an air pocket of the belly of a great fish (Jonah 1:17), predicated on the
known fact that Okene survived for three days in an air pocket in the belly of a tugboat.

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Further,
we can form an opinion or estimate that Jesus referenced the
story of Jonah (Matthew 12:38-41; Luke
11:29-32) relative to the known fact that Matt Lauer referenced the story of Okene.

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Therefore, by way of deduction, we can logically conclude that Jonah was as real of a person as is Okene (Jonah 1:1),
and that the historical Jesus Christ was as real of a person as is Matt Lauer. (Matthew 1:1-25; Luke 3:23-38)

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"Future Outcomes": Another definition of extrapolate is "to predict future outcomes
based on known facts." Based on the known fact that Jonah and Jesus existed as real historical personages, we can extrapolate
that events Jesus predicted would happen in our time, and the not-too-distant future, will also reach factual fruition.

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The wonderful prophecies Jesus uttered that have yet to be fulfilled are, in fact, history written in advance. (Matthew
24:14; Revelation 1:1; 21:3, 4) As for the 11 sailors that perished, their survivors can be comforted knowing that in the
future it will be said, "The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead." (Revelation 20:13)
A resurrection is forthcoming.

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Indeed, "someone greater than Jonah is here"! (Luke 11:32, New
Living Translation)